Moving on art studios

Developer/contractor Scott Reed of Reed Realty Advisors says he plans to have studio and rehearsal space ready for occupation on the first floor of the Arkansas Building at Sixth and Main and in an adjoining building on Main in 12 months.

Reed is negotiating with Tower Investments, which owns Lafayette Square, to buy those two buildings, the M.M. Cohn Building and the Boyle Building as part of a plan to develop a "creative corridor" on the 500 block of Main. Reed is putting up the city's $150,000 match for the $150,000 Our Town grant awarded to the city last week by the National Endowment for the Arts to design the corridor. That grant will go to the University of Arkansas Community Design Center and Marlon Blackwell Architect of Fayetteville.

Reed, 34, will eventually put apartments in the artist studio buildings.